Tuesday, June 26, 2012

A Sweet Birthday

Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Walnut Pecan Crust

Today was a big day in our home because it was my husband's birthday. My husband is gentle and kind and thoughtful and godly and fun. I just love him. He's had some really tough days at work lately so I wanted to really make his day extra special. He requested cheesecake for his birthday so I happily honored that request. To my immense relief, the cheesecake turned out well. See the recipe below. My 3Cs were so excited that it was daddy's birthday. They each made him an original something special out of Legos. Our littlest C made a little restaurant with two people eating enchiladas. Cute, no? (Can you tell we live in the Southwest where chile is practically ground up and put in a baby's bottle?) Our middle C made a boat and a jet...so boyishly fun. And our oldest C made his daddy a Lego ipad. So cool. He worked on it for hours and was so excited to give it to his daddy. All of their creations were a big hit. I framed a few of my husband's recent photos (he has a great eye for photography) and got him a few other little things. My mom-in-law joined us for dinner and we had a nice time together. It's my prayer that our love would wash away some of the stress and exhaustion he feels from his 12 hour work days. We love you!

1. Preheat oven to 350° and butter a 10-inch springform pan.
2. In a food processor or blender, pulse pecans with 1/4 cup of the sugar until finely ground. Add butter and pulse until the mixture looks like moist sand. Press crumbs into bottom of pan. Bake for 12 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges.
3. In a small mixing bowl, mix sour cream with 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of the vanilla extract. Cover and set aside. (I put them in the refrigerator since you won't use them for a long time.)
4. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°.
5. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or using a handheld electric mixer, beat cream cheese on low speed with the remaining sugar and the vanilla seeds (I added more vanilla extract) until JUST combined. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add remaining vanilla extract and the almond extract. Slowly mix in cream until smooth. Pour batter into pan and bake for 65 minutes or until lightly golden and slightly jiggly in the center.
6. Immediately pour the sour cream topping over the cheesecake and smooth the surface with back of spoon or spatula.
7. Return to oven and bake an additional 5 minutes.
8. Place on wire rack and let cool to room temperature.
9. Run a thin sharp knife around cake and remove the ring.
10. Refrigerate for 3 hours. Remove cheesecake an cover loosely with plastic wrap. Return to refrigerator and leave overnight before serving. (I didn't plan far enough ahead and we ate some after about 4 hours of refrigeration and it was still good.)